Lilly King slams ‘bull-[expletive]’ mentality of not celebrating silver and bronze medals at Olympics

Swimmer Lilly King often candidly calls it like she sees it — whether she’s talking about Olympic athletes doping, being the “bad guy” in the pool or making very bold predictions.

So when it came to the popular American sentiment that any Olympic performance less than a gold medal-winning one is a loss, King didn’t hold back. She called that mentality “bulls—,” Yahoo Sports reported from Tokyo, after she and teammate Annie Lazor won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200-meter breaststroke Friday morning at the Tokyo Olympics (Thursday night in the U.S.).

From the U.S. women’s gymnastics team winning the silver medal in the team competition to Katie Ledecky finishing second in the 400-meter freestyle to Team USA’s softball squad, reactions and headlines had a common theme: They “settled” for silver.

Here’s what King said, via Yahoo Sports:

“Excuse my French,” she said, “but the fact that we don’t celebrate silver and bronze is bulls—. …

“Just because we compete for the United States, and maybe we have extremely high standards for this sort of thing, that doesn’t excuse the fact that we haven’t been celebrating silver and bronze as much as gold.”

The “if you’re not first, you’re last” approach doesn’t work in the Olympics.

Sure, winning Olympic gold might be the ultimate goal, but being on the podium at a major international event like the Olympics is a huge accomplishment — as is qualifying for the Games at all — and one that should be celebrated, even if the athletes went in competing to win it all.

"In our minds, we didn't just get silver, we WON silver."@MariaTaylor interviews @sunisalee_, @ChilesJordan, and @grace_mccallum2 after the gymnastics team final. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/JYCibaIVhy

— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 28, 2021

Gymnast Jordan Chiles addressed how her team’s silver medal was being talked about in an interview with NBC this week, saying in part:

“We still got a medal for the United States of America. For the medal count, it’s a huge thing, but in our minds, this silver medal is a gold medal. We didn’t just get silver, we won silver.”

Before finishing second to South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker in the 200 breaststroke, King won the bronze medal in the 100-meter breaststroke — one of two events she won gold in the event at the 2016 Rio Games — after finishing behind Schoenmaker and gold medal-winner 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby. King said she was disappointed in herself, but she didn’t show it and spoil Jacoby’s special moment.

But that doesn’t mean King is indifferent about her bronze medal, and after finishing 12th in the 200 breaststroke in Rio, the two-time Olympian is pretty happy with silver this summer.